Fastball
A/N: Has anyone ever played The Sims or The Sims 2? It's addicting stuff, man…. Especially when you're trying to get the roof just right; you can spend hours trying to pick and match colors alone, and then when you try to get a professional-looking roof… wow. I mean, I can easily spend five hours manually building roofs.
Disclaimer: Copyright statements are for people who are afraid to send hitmen after plagiarizers.
Chapter Four: First Base
Nghi
The thin wall separating his parents' bedroom was not helpful at all. He grumbled again for good measure and tried to block out the irritating moans and groans. It was disgusting for an eleven year old to even think, so much as hear, about his parents engaging in sexual activity. While Inuyasha had not taken FLE yet (Future Life Education would be available next year for seventh graders.), he did acquire certain knowledge about the world of procreation, and it was not pleasant.
A particularly loud moan reverberated into his room, and the lingering tintinnabulation made him want to throw up; instead, he rolled his eyes and shifted onto his other side. First the stupid girl shows him up at baseball, then he comes home to find his stupid older brother's socks littered across his bedroom floor, then his mom calls him out to greet the neighbors, then he finds out the said stupid girl was his neighbor, and when he tried to explain what happened, Kaoru had forced him apologize to the girl. And if that wasn't enough punishment, she had boxed his ears once they were safely behind closed doors and scolded him for even considering physical assault on the opposite gender. It wasn't like she looked like a girl, he thought grouchily; his ears were still sore from that particular cuff.
But still… he burrowed a bit deeper underneath the cover, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. She was a strange girl, and Inuyasha could vouch for that. He had never seen a girl so enamored with baseball. And he most certainly had never met a girl who had a better batting technique than he did. Sure he was rusty on the curveballs, but he, Inuyasha, had mastered the technique of fastballs. All their fastballs he could hit, and all of his fastballs they couldn't.
So how was she able to hit it?
It puzzled him so, and he rolled around in his bed, trying to think of how she could pull off such a stunt and all the while trying to ignore his parents' muffled voices. God, it was annoying…. (How long has it been since he first begged for Sesshoumaru's room? It was ten feet away from the God-awful master bedroom….)
The tragic thing about Inuyasha was that he possessed two very irritable qualities that both parents denied coming from either of them- his inability to swallow his arrogance, and his inability to swallow his mouth. At first he thought she was cheating because there was no way a puny girl like her could score such a hit when even thirteen year olds had difficulty hitting. But he had given her his bat, his own bat from his hands, and he knew that aluminum and cowhide weren't magnetic at all. There was no way in hell he would even think about cheating, and if the two were using his tools of the trade, there was no way she could have managed to hook some magnet-radar device without him seeing it. And not to mention he was looking behind her the entire time; he would have seen anything devious going on.
The supposed scandal just wasn't connecting in poor Inuyasha's head, and he decided that if it didn't add up, then it didn't add up. That meant the girl- he was sick of calling her the girl and decided to call her Lulu because that was his least favorite American name. Lulu, he decided satisfactorily, and it mitigated a little of his touchiness. So it meant a possible fluke. Inuyasha contemplated this thought- he never believed in a thing called 'luck', but he did hear Sesshoumaru talk about 'first luck' one time. It was too long ago, but he dimly remembered his older brother criticizing one of the baseball cards and going on and on about a one-time deal. That's probably it, he thought decidedly. She was just lucky; maybe it was a gust of the wind that blew the ball a little off course, so naturally she would hit it; normally, no one would have been able to hit it.
But if it was just a fluke, how come Kaoru had announced earlier that today would be hot, cicada-calling, and- most importantly- still? How come Kaoru had replied that 'still' meant no wind, and how come he remembered whooping that morning about no natural interference to ruin his practice pitches?
Inuyasha's stomach dropped down to his knees. No, the fluke was out of the question; nature left him alone today, and his bat and ball were perfect before and after he inspected them. Nothing was ruined, and nothing was tagged or wired. That could only mean… that… Lulu maybe… possibly… perhaps… couldn't be too sure… indefinitely… has talent surpassing him.
"No way," he whispered, closing his eyes tightly. It was unbelievable. Incredulous. Implausible. Unthinkable. Improbable. Far-fetched. But it was true, and he moaned again before turning onto his stomach and burying his shameful head into the cotton pillow. Then he heard his parents simulating the moans, and he covered his poor, virgin ears.
After all this time, all this practicing since he was a barely legal five years old, all the running, all the throwing, all the pitching, all the batting, all the effort he put into the game to be the best of his town, some stupid Lulu punk moves in one day and ruins everything. It was 11:30, and Inuyasha's head began to hurt from too much overanalyzing; maybe it was just a bad dream, and he would wake up tomorrow to find that his real neighbors were some portly, old farts looking for a no-nothing town. He would wake up to find that the Lulu he had met in the baseball field was really a dog who attacked him and not a girl who could rival him in the baseball industry. Oh God, it was so mortifying….
But sleep wasn't coming to him any time soon, and the prick in his arm every time he pinched it only proved that his neighbor really was Lulu. Inuyasha read the clock again: a blinking midnight, and not a wink yet. Sighing, he flipped the blankets to the side and, laying there for a moment, counted evenly between each breath. The bed creaked as his weight shifted, and he was already relaxing when his bare feet touched the cool hardwood. It was a strange habit Inuyasha developed, but he felt a sense of comfort walking in small circles around his room, and sleep always came more easily. Kaoru told him he developed it around three, but he was too into carpe diem to remember past yesterday.
It was almost floating in Cloud Nine, and he almost felt tired enough to fall back onto his cotton cloud, curl up, and doze like a baby when his wandering eyes caught the level window across the rose garden. It was like cold water, and Inuyasha suppressed a heartfelt yell. Even in an unknown state of mind, Lulu managed to disrupt something so innocent and sweet… again! Everything was her fault, always, always, always her fault, that idiot girl.
Even though he was put out from lack of sleep and energy, he stood there, half-hidden in the dark and behind the wooden dresser, watching Lulu from across. She was sitting in a chair, and her mom was gently trying to reapply a new gauze bandage to Lulu's face. And he used the term trying because she was twitching and moving and squiggling around like a little worm. There was one more pang, but it was small, insignificant. Inuyasha had grown used to sentimentality, and he was more or less affected by daily public display.
He continued watching for a few more minutes, unconsciously observing Mrs.'s different expressions and reactions to her troublesome daughter, and then he unconsciously moved from the older lady to the rambunctious girl, all fiery and set in motion. He recognized some of her stances because it was from baseball, and judging from how she was gesticulating wildly and pulling at Mrs.'s arm, Inuyasha thought she was trying to get Mrs. to copy a few stance. It was warm and cozy and so well-knit- did they even know what time it was? He half-heartedly wished his own parents never knew what time it was.
But in the end, it was illogical and peculiar to be so animated at such a moment. Inuyasha amused himself with the thought of his neighbors being actual vampire-bats. Casting one more look at the silent laughter, he finally strayed from the window and back to the center of the room. Maybe they were preparing for victims at one o'clock; such a late time was dangerous, he mused in his walking merry-go-round. Even he had never stayed up that late before! They're probably-
That was it! Inuyasha stopped mid-step, and a sly smile crept into his face. Stupid Lulu must be a really big baseball fanatic if she was trying to teach Mrs.- from how the two interacted that afternoon, the two must really have similar interests, and if all of his mother's lectures taught him, she must loathe baseball, too. Yet the girl was still trying to pursue the goal of planting interest into her mother's brain, and some of those stances looked awfully familiar from the baseball field….
Inuyasha switched to a back and forth pace, and he tried to keep his head down just the way Father did. If he somehow gained a close relationship to her similar to the one she had with her mother, then maybe… most likely, they could go to baseball fields together and practice together peacefully! And that meant they could give hints to each other- no, she would give hints to him! (He would keep his secrets to himself to save time and trouble.) Finally, after he finished milking her for her ability's worth, he could- Inuyasha gave a small, excited yip- go back to being the best of Osaka and reach professional!
It was such a good plan, oh yes it was, and he gave a small pat on the back for such an ingenious idea. There was one problem left, and it hung in the air for several seconds: what kind of relationship? It would have to be good, because the two went along as well as water and oil. But Inuyasha was sleepy, and he had enough brilliance for one day. Girlfriend and boyfriend sounds good, because I sure ain't playing the mother pants in this relationship, he thought before yawning.
Inuyasha climbed into his blue cotton sheets and pulled up his blanket; if he had known that thinking would cause an opposite effect of a stimulant (namely the coffee his father drinks), he would have thought a lot harder in school by now….
The last thought he had before he lost consciousness was how awesomely ingenious the plan was.
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